Hotel

For guests that prefer to phone in their reservations, they may call the Reservation Center at 888-373-9855 to secure a reservation on the group block. The name of the group is listed as Horror Writers Association – StokerCon 2016. Callers may also use the group code SFHWA6 to identify the group.

Please note that you may make reservations in the block at the group rate until Monday, April 11th, 2016. After that time, the group rate will be offered based on hotel availability only. Group rates are as follows: Wed 5/11/16, Thurs 5/12/16, and Sun 5/15/16 are $79 per night. Fri 5/13/16 and Sat 5/14/16 are $125/per night, averaging about $102 per night if you’re staying Thursday through Sunday.

Please keep in mind there is a $20 room charge/per night on top of room tax/per night that is a mandatory state fee for all hotels in Las Vegas. This $20 surcharge, and the tax will be added to your bill at the end of your stay. If you wish to stay at the hotel during the week outside of the arranged block for the group, the best rates are mid-week (this goes for show tickets as well), and we’d suggest talking to the hotel about pricing.

The Flamingo Hotel Las Vegas hotel is a self-contained casino and resort offering everything an adventurous vacationer could want: A tropical Wildlife Habitat, Go Pool – a 15-acre Caribbean-style water playground and select rooms with fabulous views of 550-foot-tall The High Roller. Set on the famous four corners of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, this Las Vegas hotel combines heart-pounding excitement with hospitality and service that’s second to none. Located adjacent to The Linq and The High Roller.

HOTEL HISTORY: On December 26, 1946, in Las Vegas, Nevada, mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel opens The Pink Flamingo Hotel & Casino at a total cost of $6 million. The 40-acre facility wasn’t complete and Siegel was hoping to raise some revenue with the grand opening.

Well-known singer and comedian Jimmy Durante headlined the entertainment, with music by Cuban band leader Xavier Cugat. Some of Siegel’s Hollywood friends, including actors George Raft, George Sanders, Sonny Tufts and George Jessel were in attendance.

The grand opening, however, was a flop. Bad weather kept many other Hollywood guests from arriving. And because gamblers had no rooms at the hotel, they took their winnings and gambled elsewhere. The casino lost $300,000 in the first week of operation.

Siegel and his New York “partners” had invested $1 million in a property already under construction by Billy Wilkerson, owner of the Hollywood Reporter as well as some very popular nightclubs in the Sunset Strip. Wilkerson had wanted to recreate the Sunset Strip in Las Vegas, with a European style hotel with luxuious rooms, a spa, health club, showroom, golf course, nightclub and upscale restaurant. But he soon ran out of money due to the high cost of materials immediately after the war.

Siegel, who held a largest interest in the racing publication Trans America Wire, was drawn to Las Vegas in 1945 by his interest in legalized gambling and off-track betting. He purchased The El Cortez hotel for $600,000 and later sold it for a $166,000 profit.

Siegel and his organized crime buddies used the profits to influence Wilkerson to accept new partners. Siegel took over the project and supervised the building, naming it after his girlfriend Virginia Hill, whose nickname was “The Flamingo” because of her red hair and long legs.

Two weeks after the grand opening, the Flamingo closed down. It re-opened March 1, 1947, as The Fabulous Flamingo. Siegel forced Wilkerson out in April, and by May, the resort reported a profit, but it wasn’t enough to save Siegel.

Convinced that Siegel wasn’t giving them a “square count,” it is widely believed that his partners in organized crime had him killed while he was reading the paper June 20, 1947, at Hill’s Beverly Hills mansion. Hill was in Paris, having flown the coop after a fight with Siegel 10 days prior. The crime remains unsolved to this day.

Surviving a series of name and ownership changes, the hotel is known today as The Flamingo Las Vegas, owned and operated by Caesar’s Entertainment. The property offers 3,626 hotel rooms and a 77,000-square-foot casino.

The hotel gardens are said to be haunted by Bugsy Siegel, and a ghostly maid has been seen walking the 5th floor of the hotel.